A Change of Seasons
by Shutterbug5269
Summary: The Continuing Story of Alexis Castle and her family. If you haven't read my previous stories Transitions and Nemesis Rising, I suggest you do.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

August 19th, 2012

Alexis Castle stood in the middle of a sea of boxes. Though she had tried to get them to let her do this herself, Dad and Kate had insisted on coming along (though Kate had, to her credit, tried in vain to talk him out of it, too) to help her unpack her things and settle into her new furnished campus run apartment near the Columbia University campus.

Dad had pulled some strings, and in exchange for a guest lecture appearance for the creative writing program, the college had allowed her to move in a week early to avoid the hubbub that the presence of "Richard freaking Castle" with "Nikki Heat" in tow would surely create. Even so, dad had been stopped several times for autographs while they were checking in and getting her room assignment and keys, as obviously some of the campus faculty and staff were fans. She'd wanted to avoid this kind of exposure, but that plan had gone right out the window. As her room began to look more like a home away from home, and less like an empty hotel room, Rick and Kate had begun to settle down.

"Are you sure you'll be okay in here all by yourself?" her father asked, with genuine concern, "Your roommate won't be here for another week." as he nodded to the unoccupied room across from hers .

"I'll be fine, dad," Alexis replied, "I'll probably spend most of the week getting to know the campus before classes start."

She knew that her father was sincere in his concern, given her ordeal this past spring, but she could also sense that he was trying to delay the moment of his departure, and they left her there, leaving him and Kate in an empty house. She knew all of his moves by heart.

"Alexis, if you need anything, anything at all, you know where to reach me, day or night."

"Me too." Kate chimed in, with a warm smile on her face as she took Rick's arm, trying to guide him through the moment.

She looked good, Alexis thought, in the loose fitting sundress she wore which hid the baby bump from her month old pregnancy. She seemed much smaller in the sensible flats she wore instead of the power heels she preferred at work. She liked this look on her, it made her seem more down to earth and approachable. She had a lot more free time as well, now that Captain Gates had put her on a regular schedule and desk duty. Which would be good for her dad's peace of mind.

"Dad, Kate, I'll be fine, really," Alexis said emphatically, "I just need to settle in and get my bearings is all."

Her father swallowed her up in a massive bear hug, and said wistfully, "My little girl, off to college." then tried to slip the four one hundred dollar bills into her back pocket which he had tried to give to her earlier, but she had refused.

"Daaaad!" she squealed in the same tone she used when he called her "pumpkin" at the morgue. And gave him disapproving daughter scowl #6.

"I insist," he said, "It's only money, I got the advance for the last "Nikki Heat" novel. Where better to spend it than on my baby bird? You should pick up something nice to brighten this place up a bit."

Finally, Rick and Kate (mostly Rick) couldn't put off the moment any longer. Rick gave Alexis another hug, then Kate did the same. After which Kate slipped two NYPD issue business cards into her hand.

"Ryan and Espo wanted me to give these to you," she said, "If something happens and you don't feel comfortable calling your father or me, then you can call them. Their home numbers and personal cell phones are written on the back."

"Uncle Kevin, and Uncle Javi to the rescue, huh?" Alexis said, as an amused grin lit up her face, "It has a nice ring to it." and winked at her father.

Rick jumped for a moment as he remembered something important. "Oh...Right, your grandfather wanted me to give this to you," he said with a mix of childish wonder and dark foreboding, as he pulled a nondescript looking black flip phone out of his jacket pocket. "His contact number and Smith's are on the speed dial, He said that even if he's on an inspection tour of the Seventh Fleet in Japan, he'll still get the call."

Alexis had to smile about that. The cool factor of having a US Navy rear admiral and the Deputy Director of Operations for the CIA on speed dial just couldn't be ignored. Though she hoped things were never so dire that she actually needed to use the thing. Grams had told her about the one she had, and what it took to get her to use it the first time, the memory still gave her cold chills.

…**.**

As Rick and Kate Castle walked back to the minivan he had bought, when he knew he was going to be a dad again, he said with a sigh,

"My baby bird is finally leaving the nest. Things will never be the same again." He looked up and saw Alexis in the window, waving goodbye, and the two of them waved back. When he turned back toward the minivan, he slumped his shoulders dejectedly and Kate leaned in and kissed him on the cheek.

"Come on, we need to get back." Kate said with a warm smile, "We promised Lanie that we'd meet her, Espo and the Ryans for dinner and I need time to change. If it will cheer you up a little I'll even let you drive." and winked at him.

As they climbed into the minivan, Rick started the engine, gave his wife a loving kiss on the cheek, and then they pulled away.

….

**One week later**

Alexis had spent the majority of the week finding the quickest and most well lit routes to the library and the science labs on campus. The campus was incredibly quiet, but she was okay with that, she really wasn't ready for crowds yet. It was difficult enough to be in this unfamiliar place and keep her nerves under control, she'd needed get her bearings so she could function.

She had only called her father once. She was on her way back from the library and thought someone had been following her. She ran the two blocks home and locked herself in the apartment in an absolute panic. He must have broken the land speed record getting here in the Ferrari. He sat next to her on her bed and read to her until she fell asleep and sat with her all night. He only went home the next morning after making her breakfast . Dad was the one person in her life she knew would never let her down. Espo and Ryan showed up at her door a few days later to look in on her and took her to dinner. They were incredibly sweet, but Alexis could read subtext every bit as well as her dad, and could sense the subtle hand of her stepmother. It warmed her heart to know the two of them could support her without crowding her.

Today, however, she was getting ready to meet her new roommate. She had spent the entire day cleaning, trying to take her mind off of her anxiety. She had never been this anxious about meeting a new people before the...incident last spring. Dr. Burke said that this was a perfectly normal to feel this way but that didn't mean she had to like it.

The knock on the door startled her. She took a few deep breaths to get her heart rate under control, and opened the door. In waled a tall, thin man with graying hair and sad eyes, but his looked like an older sadness than the one her father had displayed when he'd helped her move in a week ago. Behind him was a willowy dark haired girl, whose manner spoke of a similar shred pain, but also of remarkable strength of spirit. She kind of reminded her of Kate in a way.

"Hi, my name's Rose, Rose Freeman," she said.

"I'm Alexis Castle." Alexis replied.

"You wouldn't perhaps be related to Richard Castle, the author?" her father said.

"He's my dad." she said, but thinking. "Here we go again."

"It's not what you think," Mr. Freeman said, "Your father and a Detective Beckett solved the case of my son, and my first wife's murders a few years ago, around Halloween."

"Kate is my stepmother now," Alexis said, "They got married just this year."

"Congratulations," Rose said, trying to be cheerful without hurting her father's feelings.

Once all of Rose's belongings were safely stowed in her room, Mr Freeman hugged her and said his goodbyes. This left the two of them alone. It would seem she had been paired with a kindred spirit of sorts. "We should get along just fine then." Alexis thought to herself.

"There's a really nice Chinese place that delivers," Alexis offered "how about we order some dinner?"

From then on the two were nearly inseparable.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

2015

It really hadn't surprised Alexis all that much, when Rose suddenly dropped out of school to enroll at the NYPD Police Academy. She had lost the passion to be a lawyer within the first six weeks of law school, and had shared with her a desire to be a cop. When she had unburdened herself about the murder of her brother by her own mother the week before Halloween back when she was 16 she felt almost guilty. She had been crying about an egg-child and a failed grade when Rose had been burying her brother and watching her mother being hauled of to prison.

She had seen this shift coming for months. They had long since gotten their own apartment in Washington Heights (which made Kate reluctant to visit often for obvious reasons) which meant that they were still roommates, at least on paper. Though her half of the rent always came in on time, she had to stay at the academy. Alexis saw Rose infrequntly, but they texted back and forth almost daily.

Whenever she got too lonely, she could always count on "Uncle Javi" and "Uncle" Kevin to come by and cheer her up or take her out to dinner. She'd seen a lot of Lanie this year, also, as she did her rotation at the morgue. In a sense it was like coming home. Now that she was a promising med student, she was given much greater responsibility than as a high school intern, as Lanie set the bar high, but not unattainably so. Though dad or Kate occasionally dropped by while working a case together she was glad it wasn't terribly often, she found that she rather liked being able to stand on her own. It was liberating.

She and Lieutenant David Roberts had been getting quite serious since her grandfather had introduced them when she had gone to visit his house in Washington DC during Dad and Kate's honeymoon. He had recently begun flight training at NAS Pensacola. He e-mailed her his progress every day, and her heart always skipped a beat when she ckecked her e-mail and found one was from him. He had always dreamed of being a naval aviator. She knew she would be in the front row of his cheering section when he graduated. Before he left for flight school, he had slipped an engagement ring on her finger in the presence of her dad and Kate they had been stunned speechless, which was not an easy thing to do.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

2019

Dr. Alexis Castle, ME rolled out on her first case as a medical examiner for the City of New York and the 12th Precinct. It felt weird to her at first, that the officers who had secured the scene were actually waiting for her. She half expected Lanie to pop up and she'd take up position off her left shoulder as always.

She began her preliminary examination of the body in relation to the scene, as her assistants took the requisite crime scene photos, after which she took the older woman's liver temperature and checked for lividity, and rigor. She also noted the amount and type of blood spatter at the scene. Her stepmother's insight had been invaluable to her as she prepared to enter this profession.

A familiar voice interrupted her train of thought, as her intern took down all of her findings.

"What do we have, Alexis?" asked Detective Rose Freeman.

"Rosie!" Alexis blurted out, "I'd heard you made Detective! Congratulations!"

"Thanks," Rosie said, blushing slightly at Alexis' exuberant outburst. "Velasquez is letting me handle the preliminaries. I think she just likes to test me." as she nodded toward Detective Maria Velasquez, who was busy taking witness statements, while still giving Rosie the eye.

Alexis composed herself, and began giving her a rundown of her preliminary findings.

"Judging by the body position, blood spatter, and lack of defense wounds, my preliminary cause of death would be blunt force trauma to the head. From the shape of the wounds a club or a baseball bat, though I should be able to narrow down the precise weapon when I get her to the lab. Since most of the injuries are to the back of the head and shoulders, and lack of defensive wounds I would speculate that she was attacked and beaten from behind. Liver temp and the state of rigor mortis indicate she has been dead for less than eight hours..."

….

When she had accompanied the body back to the morgue, she was met at the precinct by Captain Kate Castle, her stepmother. It felt weird calling her "Captain" in the precinct after years of calling her "Detective Beckett" or simply "Kate". It was also weird seeing her wearing formal attire every day. She always seemed to be a little uncomfortable to be this dressed up in the precinct. It kinda reminded her a little of the night she had shown up at the loft wearing the red dress that her dad had bought for her for the undercover operation they had been on. Everyone who actually knew her knew she was more of a turtleneck and slacks kinda girl.

"Where's dad?" Alexis asked, "this was my first case as ME, I half expected him to show up at the crime scene with his camera."

Kate smiled a little at that, in spite of herself.

"Johanna has the chicken pox," she said, with the mild look of concern of a mother who would rather be home tending her sick child, "your dad sends his love, but somebody had to be home with her, and Martha is with your grandad at some fancy Washington DC society affair."

Alexis remembered that Rick Webb, and Martha's wedding had been a small, intimate affair aboard the USS City of New York, officiated by the ship's captain and attended by only family and a small number of close friends. John Smith had been his best man, she herself had been maid of honor. She knew her grandmother reveled in the Washington DC social scene, she'd always had a flair for such things, whereas Webb's former life as an counter-espionage agent had instilled in him a preference for smaller more low key affairs. In their case opposites really did attract.

She also remembered well how her father had doted on her when she had been sick as a child, and felt a small pang of jealousy for her seven year old half sister.

"I am a doctor, Kate," she said, "if it would make you and dad feel any better, I would be happy to stop by and check up on her after work. I'll just need to stop by my apartment first and take a shower after cutting into our victim here."

Kate brightened noticeably, and said, "I'm sure Johanna would love that! She always treasures any time she can spend with her big sister."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

**2022**

It was one of the most heart wrenching days of Alexis Castle's life. When she had gotten the call from her dad that Gramms had been taken to the emergency room, it hit her like a sledgehammer from behind. According to the attending physician, she had suffered a massive stroke caused by an undiagnosed embolism. She had looked so small and frail in the hospital bed in the I.C.U., having been in a coma since the paramedics arrived. Rick Webb, her grandfather, who had always been a larger than life figure to her, looked more like an empty shell of himself as he sat at her bedside holding her hand with tears running down his cheeks. He had been the one to find her, collapsed at their home, a few blocks from her dad's loft.

**Three days later.**

A decision had to be made. Alexis saw the hesitation on her grandfather's face clearly. The certainty of the decision was tearing him up inside. He had not left her side for three days, waiting for a prognosis. He'd held onto slim hope as every available test was run, and seeing those hopes dashed as each one came up negative.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Webb," the doctor told him, "her brain was deprived of oxygen for too long, and there seems to be no brain activity that we can detect. The only thing keeping her alive at this point is the life support apparatus."

"She wouldn't want to live like this, dad." she heard her father tell him with a heavy heart, with Kate supporting him. Johanna was outside, being kept distracted by Javi, Lanie and Kevin.

The doctor in her head, and the granddaughter in her heart warred with one another, but deep down she knew her father spoke the truth. This was not life, it was just existence which was not good enough for Martha Rogers Webb. Not by a long shot. Anyone who ever knew her, could see that.

"I know, son," Webb said, his voice hollow and devoid of hope, "I know."

After signing the appropriate forms, the doctor turned off the life support equipment and respectfully left the room. As her heart stopped beating, and the monitor flat-lined, Rick Webb took her hand, brushed a lock of hair from her face and quietly began to sing:

**"The minstrel fell, but the foe-man's chain could not bear that proud soul under."**

His voice broke, but he continued,

**"The harp he loved never sang again..."**

The words brought him no comfort, and caught in his throat, but Alexis picked up where he left off,

**"...as he tore it's chords a-sunder."**

After which her father, Kate, and Smith joined her

**"He said no chain shall sully thee, oh soul of love and bravery.**

**Oh soul of love and bravery**

**Your songs were meant for the pure and free**

**They shall never sound in slavery!"**

This one death, had done what three tours in Vietnam, and forty two years in counter-espionage and black ops could never accomplish. Richard Webb had finally been broken.

He joined her in death less than a month later. Lanie Esposito, Chief Medical Examiner for the City of New York personally conducted the autopsy. Though she checked the box marked "natural causes," deep down, she knew that he had simply died of a broken heart.

He was buried next to Martha in a plot not twenty paces from that of Johanna Beckett with full military honors.

Out in the harbor a US Navy Warship fired an 11 gun salute befitting his rank.

A Navy Commander, knelt before her dad, handed him the neatly folded flag from Webb's coffin and said, "On behalf of the President of the United States and the Chief of Naval Operations, please accept this flag as a symbol of our appreciation for your father's service to this Country and a grateful Navy." Then rose and saluted.

Little Johanna cringed in shock as the five man honor guard fired their three volleys into the air, and clung to her mother's leg for comfort as the lone Marine in the distance played taps on his bugle.

Upon returning to the loft, Rick had shut himself into his study and refused to come out, not even as Kate banged on the door in tears. He could think of only one way to truly immortalize the father he had only known for ten years. For the first time in nearly a year, he sat with his laptop and began to write. He didn't come out for nearly two days, though Kate did pick the lock on the door, and came in to make sure he ate and kissed Johanna good night.

When he was done, a new Richard Castle book series was born. The first was entitled "Nemesis Rising."


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five  
**

**Naval Station Norfolk (Chambers Field)**

Alexis Castle Roberts stood just off the side of the flight line after kissing her husband before he headed for his F/A18F Super Hornet as the newest pilot (or nugget) for VFA 25 set to deploy aboard the USS Harry S. Truman. She held the small flag she had been given as high as she could as his fighter rolled past her on the tarmac and began to gather speed up the runway. She watched as it gracefully rose into the sky then slowly became a small dot and was gone. When she turned back to Kate and her father she had tears in her eyes. They both hugged her as they walked back to their waiting car.

They had only been married for a week before his deployment. The service had been a beautiful affair, even if hastily planned. As her father walked her up the aisle to her waiting groom and his groomsmen in their dress whites. Little Johanna walked in front as both flower girl and ring bearer. She strode nearly impeccably straight, unaware that she was copying the Naval officers of the honor guard who acted as ushers in the ceremony. Kate and Meredith had been seated together, and tried to be civil at least for the ceremony. Though Kate did get up and snap several pictures as Johanna marched past, smiling that beaming megawatt smile her father loved so much.

As they walked out of the chapel, the Navy ushers had assembled on the steps, and on command drew their sabers to form an arch for them to pass under. As they passed below each set of crossed sabers they were snapped blade up. It had been a beautiful service and their week-long honeymoon was fresh on her mind as his fighter disappeared in the distance. He would be gone for six months.

It already felt like an eternity, though thankfully he should be home just before Christmas.

She would merely have to bury herself in her work in the ME's office until he came back. Otherwise she doubted she could bear being alone in the apartment they shared. In her down time she only hoped that she wouldn't drive dad and Kate nuts coming over so much.

**Three weeks later**

Captain Kate Beckett Castle sat at her desk in the 12th Precinct captain's office with her husband sitting right in his accustomed place. When she took over the job from Victoria Gates, he had merely moved his chair from the bullpen into the office and picked up right where they left off. Though she rarely hit the streets anymore unless it was an officer involved shooting or a high profile case, she kept a hands on approach to the casework in her precinct and an open door policy, honoring Roy Montgomery's memory in her own way.

Her husband still gave his opinions and offered advice on cases he found of particular interest. Johanna was left in the very capable hands of her dad, who reveled in having a granddaughter and and was more than happy to pick her up at school and spend time with her till they came back from the office.

The person she was most worried about was Alexis, and so was Rick. She was driving herself way too hard at work it was not healthy. She knew what it was like to be so driven, what it had cost her, and what it had almost taken away from her. She didn't know what to do. When she and her Rick had tried to talk to her about it, she shut them out and refused to discuss it.

So far it had not hampered her performance. If anything her work was exemplary. It was like she was trying to exorcise a demon of her own making. The best they could do was watch and wait, and hope that they could help pick up the pieces when things went bad.

Until then she had a precinct to run.

To be continued in my next big multi-chapter tale.

Coming this summer!


End file.
